It would be wise to explain how we have discovered the occasion and subject of this epistle as we have considered it. What, then, are they? The Colossians used to approach God through angels; they followed many Jewish and Grecian observances. Paul is correcting these practices.

What is the source of grace for you? And peace? From God our Father, Paul writes. In this place Paul does not mention the name of Christ. I will ask those who speak disparagingly of the Spirit, in what way is God the Father of servants? Who wrought these mighty achievements? Who made you a saint? Who faithful? Who a son of God? He who made you worthy to be trusted is the same who caused you to be entrusted with all.

[Paul] speaks of the good things to come. He has in view their temptations. They should not seek their rest here. . . . Because of the hope, he says, which is laid up. He shows how secure this hope is.

So that you may pursue the good things of heaven, a firm hope for these very things is maintained, provided that all that comes from you is consistent with them.

Paul shows them that the governance of angels does not fulfill the hope laid before us of the resurrection and the kingdom. These happen by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We already see heaven with the eyes of faith, even as we prepare for it in the present with an eager spirit.

Bodily discipline performed in stillness purifies the body of the matter within it. But the discipline of the mind humbles the soul, filters out her crass notions of things that perish and draws her from the state where the thoughts are passionately engrossed and toward the state where they are moved by her divine vision. . . . This divine, contemplative vision of heavenly things comes to us precisely when, engaged in bodily and mental discipline, we are the recipients of an unutterably pristine glory that separates [us] from this world and our thoughts of it. By this we are thoroughly convinced of our hope which is laid up for us and we stand in full assurance of its state.

Paul speaks metaphorically when he writes, is come. He means, it did not come and go away, but that it remained and was there. Many doctrines are most strongly confirmed if they are held in common with many. Therefore Paul added, As also it is in all the world. The gospel is present everywhere, everywhere victorious, everywhere established.

Bearing fruit. In works. Increasing. By the coming to faith of many, by becoming firmer; for plants then begin to thicken when they have become firm.

Not only is the faith known throughout the world, but it grows daily . . . and just as it grows daily in extent, it also grows in depth among you.

The gospel has come not only to the Colossians, but to the whole world, where it is powerful and grows by means of the preached word.

The fruit of the gospel refers to those who hear the gospel and respond with a praiseworthy life. The growth is the increase in the number of believers.

It is much less surprising that he [Paul] used his verbs in the present tense in that passage which, as you remarked, he repeated again and again: For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is come to you as also it is in the whole world, and brings forth fruit and grows. Although the gospel did not yet embrace the whole world, he said that it brings forth fruit and grows in the whole world, in order to show how far it would extend in bearing fruit and growing. If, then, it is hidden from us when the whole world will be filled by the church bringing forth fruit and growing, undoubtedly it is hidden from us when the end will be, but it certainly will not be before that.

I am accustomed in my prescription against all heresies to fix my concise and comprehensive criterion [of truth] in the testimony of time, claiming priority therein as our rule and alleging lateness to be the characteristic of every heresy. This shall be proved even by the apostle, when he says: For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, which you have heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel; which has come to you, as it has to the whole world. For if, even at that time, the tradition of the gospel had spread everywhere, how much more now! Now, if it is our gospel which has spread everywhere, rather than any heretical gospel, much less Marcion’s, which only dates from the reign of Antoninus, then ours will be the gospel of the apostles.

The gospel has come to you, as it is in all the world, and brings forth fruit. The Son of God said with his own mouth, You shall be witnesses to me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth.^[1] Caecilianus, the bishop of the church of Carthage, is accused with human contentiousness; the church of Christ, established among all nations, is recommended by the voice of God.

There are both good and bad in the Catholic church, which has spread not in Africa alone, as the Donatist sect has done, but through all nations,^[1] as it was promised, and which extends throughout the whole world, as the apostle says, bringing forth fruit and increasing.

Honor, love and praise the holy church, your mother, the heavenly Jerusalem, the holy City of God. It is she who, in this faith which you have received, bears fruit and spreads throughout the world. She is the church of the living God, the pillar and mainstay of truth,^[1] who, in dispensing the sacraments, tolerates the wicked who are eventually to be separated and whom, meanwhile, disparity of customs keeps at a distance. For the sake of the grain now growing amid the chaff, at the final sifting of which the harvest destined for the granary will be revealed, the church has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Don’t doubt, Paul says, the hope which is to come: you see that the world is being converted. And why do we need to refer to the cases of others? What happened in your own case is independently a sufficient ground for belief, for you knew the grace of God in truth: that is, in works. So that these two things, viz. The belief of all, and your own too, confirm the things that are to come. Nor was the fact one thing, and what Epaphras said, another. . . . If this man be the minister of Christ, how do you say that you approach God by angels? He has made known to us your love in the Spirit. For this love is wonderful and steadfast. All other love has but the name. . . . For nothing, nothing is so strong as the bond of the Spirit.

Not for one day do we pray for you, nor yet for two, nor three. By this Paul both shows his love and gives them a gentle hint that they had not yet arrived at the end. For the words that you may be filled signify this. . . . He says, that you may be filled, rather than that you may receive, because in fact they had already received. That you may be filled refers to what they were still lacking. Thus Paul rebukes without giving offense and praises without producing laziness in them, as though they were already complete.

Paul’s prayer is his way of building on the fundamentals of belief already taught to the Colossians, so that faith will be extended to practice, to right actions.

It is God’s will, that we acknowledge him and know that it is not possible to be saved by angels but only through Jesus Christ. How then can we know this? Through spiritual, not worldly, wisdom.

What, then, is more divine than the working of the Holy Spirit, since God himself testifies that the Holy Spirit presides over his blessings? . . . For no blessing can be full except through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, too, the apostle found nothing better to wish us than this, as he himself said: We cease not to pray and make request for you that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding walking worthily of God. He taught that this was the will of God: that by walking in good works and words and affections, we should be filled with God’s will, who puts his Holy Spirit into our hearts.

Here he speaks of life and its works, for so he does also everywhere: with faith Paul always couples conduct. . . . Summarily, Paul states, we pray that you may lead a life of virtue, worthy of your citizenship, and may stand firmly, being strengthened as it is reasonable to be strengthened by God. For this reason Paul does not yet focus upon doctrines, but dwells upon life.

We are commanded to do good when it says: Decline from evil and do good,^[1] but we pray to do good when it says: We cease not to pray for you, asking, and among other things that Paul asks he mentions: That you may walk worthy of God in all things pleasing, in every good work and good word. As then we acknowledge the part played by the will when these commands are given, so let him acknowledge the part played by grace when these petitions are offered.

That man walks worthily of God who pleases him in all things: that is, that he may bear fruit in good work with the knowledge of God. At the same time Paul has expressed something here that is obscure elsewhere, namely, how God gives the power to will and helps and strengthens us by teaching wisdom and granting the grace of understanding, and not by taking away freedom of choice. This is why he prays that they may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual knowledge, so that they may walk worthily of God in all things.

For there is an instruction of the perfect, concerning which Paul writes to the Colossians: We don’t stop praying for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. . . . On the one hand, there are the mysteries which were hid till the time of the apostles and were delivered by them as they received from the Lord; these, concealed in the Old Testament, were manifested to the saints. And, on the other hand, there is the riches of the glory of the mystery in the Gentiles, which is faith and hope in Christ; which in another place he has called the foundation.^[1]

By saying, who has qualified us, Paul emphasizes an important point. For example, if a person of low rank were to become a king, he would have the power to make any person he wishes governor; and this is the extent of his power, namely, that he can give such a dignity. He cannot, however, make the person he has chosen fit for the office, and often the honor thus conferred makes a person ridiculous. If, however, he has both conferred the honor, and made the person worthy of it, and capable of exercising it, then a very great honor has indeed been conferred. This is what Paul says here: that God not only has given the honor but also made us strong enough to receive it.

For he himself has bound the strong man and stolen his goods,^[1] that is, humanity itself, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity. God has created vessels fit for the Master’s use,^[2] that is, us who have been perfected for every work through the preparation of that part of us which is in our own control. Thus we gained our approach to the Father through him, being translated from the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.

How can the apostle say: Giving thanks to God the Father, who makes us suitable for a share of the lot of the saints in light, who has snatched us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, unless the will that liberates us is not ours but his?

A great theater is filled with spectators to watch your contests and your summons to martyrdom, just as if we were to speak of a great crowd gathered to watch the contests of athletes supposed to be champions. . . . Thus, the whole world and all of the angels of the right and the left, and all men, those from God’s portion^[1] and those from the other portions, will serve as spectators when we contest for Christianity. Indeed, either the angels in heaven will cheer us on, and the floods will clap their hands together . . . or, may it not happen, the powers from below, which rejoice in evil, will cheer.

But why does he call it an inheritance (or lot)? To show that by his own achievements no one obtains the kingdom, but as a lot is rather the result of good luck, so in truth it is the same principle here. For no one leads a life so good as to be counted worthy of the kingdom, but the whole is his free gift.

The lament in the Psalms, indeed, is absolutely true: Behold in iniquity was I conceived, and in sins did my mother nourish me in her womb.^[1] Again, there is what is written, that there is none clean in God’s sight, not even an infant whose life has lasted but a day on the earth. So these are the exception, and it is to exceed our limited human measure to wish to inquire about the rank they may deserve in that lot of the saints in light which is promised for the future.

See, then, how it can come to pass that a man may have the baptism of Christ and still not have the faith or the love of Christ; how it is that he may have the sacrament of holiness and still not be reckoned in the lot of the holy. With regard to the mere sacrament itself, it makes no difference whether someone receives the baptism of Christ where the unity of Christ is not.

Moreover in writing to the Thessalonians he says: Giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light.^[1] Since we read that many things in the Old and New Testaments were divided by lots, none has dared to deny that the lot has been God’s way of manifesting what devoted hearts sought with prayerful petition.

The whole is from him, the giving both of these things and of those; for no achievement finds its source in us. . . . Not then so as to deliver man from darkness only did he show his love toward him. It is a great thing indeed to have been delivered from darkness; but to have been brought into a kingdom too is far greater.

Because we share a likeness of nature with the man whom Christ assumed in the incarnation, we also share in his kingdom of love when we do good works as his adopted sons.

Before the law and in the law the angels served God for our salvation, but God did not bring us to the kingdom through them. But now through our Lord, his only begotten Son, the kingdom is given to you.

It was not the law but Christ the Lord, who bore the law, that has given us redemption through a saving baptism. When Paul said this, he also made a statement about God and showed him to be the maker of all things.

Freed thus from the condition of darkness, that is, plucked from the infernal place, in which we were held by the devil both because of our own and because of Adam’s transgression, who is the father of sinners, we were translated by faith into the heavenly kingdom of the Son of God. This was so that he might show us by what love God loved us, when, raising us from deepest hell, he led us into heaven with his true Son.

From this power of evil angels nothing delivers man but the grace of God, of which the apostle speaks, Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. Israel’s own story illustrates this figure, when they were delivered from the power of the Egyptians and translated into the kingdom of the land of promise flowing with milk and honey, which signifies the sweetness of grace.

Because in Greek to suffer is paschein, for this reason Pascha has been thought of as a passion, as though this name has been derived from suffering. But in its own language, that is, in Hebrew, Pascha means a passing over. For this reason the people of God celebrated the Pascha for the first time when, fleeing from Egypt, they passed over the Red Sea. . . . And we effect a most salutary passing over when we pass over from the devil to Christ, and from this tottering world to his most solidly established kingdom. And therefore we pass over to God who endures so that we may not pass over with the passing world. Concerning this grace conferred upon us, the apostle, praising God, says, Who has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us over into the kingdom of the Son of his love.

And he threw him, says John, into the abyss,^[1] meaning, clearly, that he cast the devil into the abyss, and the abyss symbolizes the innumerable multitude of the impious, in whose hearts there is a great depth of malignity against the church of God. . . . Now because he is bound and shut up by this ban, the devil is prohibited and inhibited from leading astray the nations which belonged to Christ but were in time past led astray by him or held in his grip. For God chose those nations before the foundation of the world, to rescue them from the power of darkness and transfer them to the kingdom of his beloved Son, as the apostle says.

Snatched from the powers of darkness at such a great price,^[1] and by so great a mystery,^[2] and loosed from the chains of the ancient captivity, make sure, dearly beloved, that the devil does not destroy the integrity of your souls with any stratagem. Whatever is forced on you contrary to the Christian faith, whatever is presented to you contrary to the commandments of God, it comes from the deceptions of the one who tries with many wiles to divert you from eternal life, and, by seizing certain occasions of human weakness, leads careless and negligent souls again into his snares of death. Let all those reborn through water and the Holy Spirit consider the one whom they have renounced.

Let us now see what we ought to understand by the expression image of the invisible God, in order that we may learn from this expression how God can rightly be called the Father of his Son; and let us first of all consider what things are called images in ordinary human speech. Sometimes the term image is applied to an object painted or carved on some material, such as wood or stone. Sometimes a child is said to be an image of the parent, when the likeness of the parent’s features is in every respect faithfully reproduced in the child. . . . In regard to the Son of God, of whom we are now speaking, the image may be compared to our second illustration for this reason, that he is the invisible image of the invisible God, just as according to the Scripture narrative we say that the image of Adam was his son Seth.

We may inquire whether there exists any substance in which we can discern neither color nor shape nor possibility of touch nor size, a substance perceptible to the mind alone, which anyone can call whatever he pleases. The Greeks speak of this substance as asōmaton, or incorporeal; but the divine Scriptures call it invisible; for the apostle declares that God is invisible, when he says that Christ is the image of the invisible God.

Whose image then will you have him be? God’s? Then he is exactly like the one to whom you assign him. If you compare him to a human image, say so, and I’ll be done with you as a madman. . . . The image of the invisible is itself also invisible, and invisible in the same way, for otherwise it would not be an image. For an image, so far as it is an image, even on a human level, ought to be exactly similar, as, for example, in respect of the features and the likeness. But here indeed among us, this is by no means possible; for human art fails in many respects, or rather fails in all, if you make a careful examination. But where God is, there is no error, no failure.

But though he is Word, he is not, as we said, comparable to human words, composed of syllables; but he is the unchanging image of his own Father. For men, composed of parts and made out of nothing, speak in a composite and divisible fashion. But God possesses true existence and is not composite; hence his Word also has true existence and is not made of different parts or syllables. He is the one and only-begotten God, who proceeds in his goodness from the Father as from a good Fountain, and orders all things and holds them together.

The term image signifies that one living being shares the same substance with another being. However, and by contrast, inanimate images, precisely because they are inanimate and have no soul, do not possess the substance of that of which they are images [i.e., they are mere outward copies].

He is called image because he is of one substance with the Father; he stems from the Father and not the Father from him, it being the nature of an image to copy the original and to be named after it. But there is more to it than this. The ordinary image is a motionless copy of a moving being. Here we have a living image of a living being, indistinguishable from its original to a higher degree than Seth from Adam^[1] and any earthly offspring from its parents. Beings with no complexity to their nature have no points of likeness or unlikeness. They are exact replicas, identical rather than like.

Consider the following words also: In our image.^[1] What do you say to this? Surely, the image of God and of the angels is not the same. Now it is absolutely necessary for the form of the Son and of the Father to be the same, the form being understood, of course, as becomes the divine, not in a bodily shape, but in the special properties of the Godhead. . . . To whom does he say: In our image? To whom else, I say, than to the brightness of his glory and the image of his substance,^[2] who is the image of the invisible God?

For the Son remained the Word of God, although he became man, being the Father in form,^[1] according to his spiritual image,^[2] I mean, and being in every way unchangeable.

In parents and children there would be found an image and an equality and a likeness if the age difference were lacking. For the child’s likeness has been derived from the parent, so that the likeness may rightly be called an image. . . . In God, however, the conditions of time do not obtain, for God cannot be thought of as having begotten in time the Son through whom he has created the times. Hence it follows that not only is [the Son] his image, because he is from [God], and the likeness, because the image, but also the equality is so great that there is not even a temporal distinction standing in the way between them.

It is fortunate that in another passage [the apostle] calls Christ the image of the invisible God. For does it not follow with equal force from that passage that Christ is not truly God, because the apostle describes him as the image of God? This is true, if (as Marcion contends) he is not truly man because he has taken on the form or image of a man. For in both cases the true substance will have to be excluded, if image (or fashion) and likeness and form are descriptions of a phantom. But since he is truly God as the Son of the Father, in his fashion and image, he has been already by the force of this conclusion determined to be truly man, as the Son of man, found in the fashion and image of a man.

Please note that the same Moses says in another passage that God appeared to Abraham.^[1] Yet the same Moses hears from God that no man can see God and live.^[2] If God cannot be seen, how did God appear? If he appeared, how is it that he cannot be seen? . . . This can only mean that it was not the Father, who never has been seen, that was seen, but the Son, who is apt both to descend and to be seen, for the simple reason that he has descended. In fact, he is the image of the invisible God, that our limited human nature and frailty might in time grow accustomed to see God the Father in him who is the Image of God, that is, in the Son of God.

He calls Christ the invisible image, not because God becomes visible in him but rather because the greatness of God is shown forth in him. In a way we do see the invisible nature of God in Christ as the image, in the sense that he was begotten by God the Word and will judge the whole earth when he appears in his proper nature at the time of his second coming. Thus, he holds for us the status of image, which is visible and belongs to Jesus’ earthly, human state, for the very reason that we are able to infer from this image [in its earthly appearance] to his divine nature. . . . I am astounded at those who attribute his status as the image to his divine nature univocally . . . since the term image would never have been applied to human beings (i.e., as some have done) if it had been a term exclusively proper to divine nature.

The Lord has declared: If I do not perform the works of my Father do not believe me.^[1] Hence, he teaches that the Father is seen in him because he performs his works so that the power of the nature that was perceived would reveal the nature of the power that was perceived, wherefore the apostle, indicating that this is the image of God, says: Who is the image of the invisible God . . . that through him he should reconcile all things to himself. Accordingly, he is the image of God by the power of these works.

Be like the image on the coin, unchangeable, keeping the same habits every day. When you see the coin, see the image; when you see the law, see Christ, the image of God, in the law. And because he himself is the image of the invisible and incorruptible God, let him shine for you as in the mirror of the law. Confess him in the law that you may acknowledge him in the gospel.

Now it is clear that the principle of the life which is pure and unmixed with anything else is properly in the firstborn of all creation. The participants in Christ truly live because they receive their life from this life, while just as those who are thought to live without him do not have the true light, so neither do they live the true life.

And perhaps for this reason the holy prophecies proclaim him here as servant, and there as son. He is called servant because of the form of a servant,^[1] and because he is of the seed of David,^[2] but son in accordance with his power as firstborn.^[3] So it is true to say that he is man and that he is not man. He is man insofar as he is capable of death; not man insofar as he is more divine than man.

But when he said to the Pharisees, Although I testify of myself, my testimony is true, because I know whence I came and where I go,^[1] he was speaking about his divine nature and, as one might say, on the basis of which he was the firstborn of all creation.

Not then because he was from the Father was he called Firstborn, but because in him the creation came to be; and as before the creation he was the Son, through whom was the creation, so also before he was called the Firstborn of the whole creation, the Word himself was with God and the Word was God.^[1] . . . If then the Word also were one of the creatures, Scripture would have said of him also that he was Firstborn of other creatures; but in fact, the saints’ saying that he is Firstborn of the whole creation demonstrates that the Son of God is other than the whole creation and not a creature. . . . He is called Firstborn among many brothers because of the relationship of the flesh, and Firstborn from the dead because the resurrection of the dead is from him and after him.

The apostle says that Christ is the image of the Father—for he calls him the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Firstborn, mark you, not first created, in order that he may be believed to be both begotten, in virtue of his nature, and the first in virtue of his eternity.

For according to the form of God he is the beginning who also speaks to us,^[1] in which beginning God made the heavens and the earth,^[2] but according to the form of a slave he is the bridegroom coming out of his chamber.^[3] According to the form of God he is the firstborn of every creature, and he himself is before all creatures, and in him all things hold together, and according to the form of a slave he is the head of the body, the church.

For the word firstborn is not expressive of dignity and honor, nor of anything else, but of time only. . . . Indeed, so that people will not suppose that he has a more recent origin in time—since in the past the approach to the Father was through angels, but is now through Christ—he shows first that these angels had no power (otherwise Christ could not have been born out of darkness [v. 13]), Paul shows next that Christ is also before them.

Those who argue that the phrase image of the invisible God refers to Christ’s divine nature also take the position that firstborn cannot apply to his human nature. They should take note of the fact that this latter term cannot, however, be applied to the divine nature. If, indeed, he were the firstborn as a creature, he would be described as the first-created . . . but since he is called firstborn, he is so of those who must be saved in his likeness. The apostle shows this, when he says to the Romans, Since those whom he foreknew, he also foreordained, to be conformed to the image of his Son, who is the firstborn among many brothers,^[1] and thus he calls him the firstborn brother. . . . How then, they ask, can the term firstborn as describing the assumed human nature be applied to the whole creation, since he did not exist in this way before every creature but has come only in recent times? They do not understand that firstborn is not spoken in a temporal sense only but in the sense of preeminence as well, for it refers to Christ’s status with regard to those who were born after him.

Paul wishes to say and show that Christ is before all. For if he is not before all, how could all things be created in him? In him, Paul says, all things were created, so that denying that our hope is in angels, we may put our hope in Christ.

If he is the only-begotten, how is he the firstborn? If firstborn, how is he the only-begotten? For he is called in the holy Gospels only-begotten. Thus, he is the firstborn of creation: not because he has a created sibling but because he was begotten before every creature. How could that be done, so that he was both brother of a creature and its maker? . . . The apostle does not call him first-created, but first-begotten, that is, prior to all others.

The meaning of the creation, of which he is firstborn, is not unknown to us. For we recognize a twofold creation of our nature, the first that of our conception and birth, the second that of our new creation. But there would have been no need for the second creation had we not crippled the first by our disobedience. Accordingly, when the first creation had grown old and vanished away, it was necessary that there should be a new creation in Christ . . . for the maker of human nature at the first and afterwards is one and the same. Then he took dust from the earth and formed man: again he took dust from the Virgin and did not merely form man, but formed man about himself: then he created; afterwards, he was created: then the Word made flesh; afterwards, the Word became flesh, that he might change our flesh to spirit, through becoming a partaker with us in flesh and blood. Of this new creation therefore in Christ, which he himself began, he was called the firstborn.

Let those then who were born not from blood, nor from the will of the flesh, but from God^[1] offer concord to God as peace-loving children. Let all the adopted members join together into that firstborn of new creation^[2] who came not to do his own will, but that of the one who sent him.^[3]

He who has been born first is firstborn, whether he is the only child or has preceded other brothers. So, if the Son of God were called firstborn without being called only-begotten, then we should understand him to be firstborn of creatures as being a creature. Since, however, he is called both firstborn and only-begotten, we must maintain both of these as applying to him. Thus, we say that he is the first-born of every creature, since he is from God, and creation is also from God. . . . For this very reason, that he shared flesh and blood along with us and then, also, that we were made sons of God through him by being adopted through baptism. He who is by nature Son of God has become firstborn among us who have by adoption and grace become sons of God and are accounted as his brothers.

All things were made through him and without him was made not a thing.^[1] From this all nothing is exempt. Now, it is the Father who made all things through him, whether visible or invisible, whether sensible or intelligible, whether temporal for the sake of some dispensation or eternal. These he did not make through angels or some powers that were separated from his thought.

Now that we have briefly repeated our account of the Trinity, we must go on in the same way to remind the reader that through the Son all things are said to be created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers—all things were created through him and in him he is before all things; in him who is the head all things hold together. The all things includes the various supernatural powers that are specified in the remainder of the verse. Paul insists these are subordinate to Christ’s power and authority.

Therefore Christ is the Only-begotten Son of God and Maker of the World, for he was in the world, and the world was made through him,^[1] and he came unto his own,^[2] as the Gospel teaches us. But Christ is the Maker, at the bidding of the Father, not only of things visible but also things invisible. For, according to the apostle: In him were created all things in the heavens or on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things have been created through him and unto him, and he is before all creatures, and in him all things hold together. Though you mention the worlds, Jesus Christ, at the bidding of the Father, is Maker of these too.

For the Word of God was not made for us but rather we for him, and in him all things were created. For even if it had seemed good to God not to make things of determinate origin, still the Word would have been no less with God, and the Father in him. At the same time, things of determinate origin could not without the Word be brought to be; hence they were made through him—and with meaning and purpose. For since the Word is the Son of God by nature proper to his essence and is from him, as he said himself, the creatures could not have come to be, except through him.

All things, he says, have been created through him, and to him. Indeed, in him is through him, for having said in him, Paul added, through him. But what does to him mean? It is this: the subsistence of all things depends on him.

So then, he himself who calls the Son of God the maker even of heavenly things has also plainly said that all things were made in the Son, that in the renewal of his works he might by no means separate the Son from the Father but unite him to the Father. Paul, too, says: For in him were all things created in the heavens and in the earth, visible and invisible.

If the Son, then, is not begotten within limits of time, we are free to judge that nothing can have existed before the Son, whose being is not confined by time. If, indeed, there was anything in existence before the Son, then it instantly follows that all things in heaven and earth were not created in him, and the apostle is shown to have erred in so setting it down in his epistle. However, if nothing existed before he was begotten, I fail to see how he—who was begotten before all things—should be said to be after any other thing.

There is no doubt that all things are through the Son, since, according to the apostle, All things are through him and in him. If all things are through him, and all things are from nothing, and nothing is except through him, I ask in what way does he lack the true nature of God, since he is not lacking either in the nature or the power of God? For he used the power of his nature that these things should exist which had no existence, and that these things should exist which pleased him.

Before Abraham I am^[1]; that’s what he said himself, the Gospel speaks. Listen to it, or read it. But that’s little enough, being the creator before Abraham; he’s the creator before Adam, creator before heaven and earth, before all the angels, and the whole spiritual creation, thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, creator before all things whatsoever.

He did not say, through him, but in him. Thus Paul is not speaking of the first creation but rather of the repair of the creation in him, according to which what was once dissolved is now brought back into a harmonious whole.

Created through him refers to the first creation, while created in him refers to what has been accomplished through his incarnation.

Before all things came to be, he was born. But Paul also says that all things were created in him. He is saying that the potency of all things may be believed to be in him, and since in fact all things came into existence through him. This last means that he is the head of every creature, since they began to exist only by virtue of existing with respect to him.

Paul did not say, he was made before all things, but he is before all things. He is not only the maker of all, but also he manages the care of what he has made and governs the creature, which exists by his wisdom and power.

For after making mention of the creation, he naturally speaks of the Framer’s power as seen in it, which power, I say, is the Word of God, by whom all things have been made. If indeed the creation is sufficient of itself alone, without the Son, to make God known, see that you don’t err in thinking that without the Son it has come to be. For if through the Son it has come to be, and in him all things consist, it must follow that he who contemplates the creation rightly is contemplating also the Word who framed it, and through him begins to apprehend the Father.

Now we come to that laughable method, attempted by some, of showing a difference of power to subsist between Father and Son. . . . It is urged that no small difference in degree of divine majesty is signified in the affirmation that all things are of the Father and through the Son. Whereas nothing is clearer than that here a plain reason is given of the omnipotence of the Son, inasmuch as while all things are of the Father, nonetheless are they all through the Son. The Father is not among all things, for to him it is confessed that all things serve Thee.^[1] Nor is the Son reckoned among all things, for all things were made by him,^[2] and all things exist together in him, and he is above all the heavens. The Son, therefore, exists not among but above all things. Indeed, after the flesh, he is of the people, the Jews. Yet at the same time he is God over all, blessed forever,^[3] having a name which is above every name,^[4] it being said of him, You have put all things in subjection under his feet.^[5]

Hence, with regard to the supra-essential being of God—transcendent goodness transcendently there—no lover of the truth which is above all truth will seek to praise it as word or power or mind or life or being. No. It is at a total remove from every condition, movement, life, imagination, conjecture, name, discourse, thought, conception, being rest, dwelling, unity, limit, infinity, the totality of existence. And yet, since it is the underpinning of goodness and by merely being there is the cause of everything, to praise this divinely beneficent Providence you must turn to all of creation. It is there at the center of everything, and everything has it for a destiny. It is there before all things, and in it all things hold together.

Then having spoken of his dignity, [Paul] also proceeds to speak of his love for humanity. He is, he says, the head of the body, the church. He did not say of the fullness of the universe, (although this too is signified) out of a wish to show his great friendliness to us, in that he who is thus above, and above all, connected himself with those below.

As the one in whom all things were created, he is described here as the head of the church, which is made into his body through spiritual rebirth and which has the form of the future resurrection, which we hope to share with him as partakers of immortality when we are baptized.

Christ is head of the church and firstborn from the dead through his humanity, Paul having passed here from discourse about divinity to reflection on the economy of salvation.

Christ is the head of the church, if things heavenly and earthly live together in him, such that if the whole body is ever deprived of its head, that is, separated from its Creator, there would be an insane and empty chaos.

For the resurrection we Christians know already has come to pass in our head, and in the members it is yet to be. The head of the church is Christ, the members of Christ are the church. That which has preceded in the head will follow in the body. This is our hope; for this we believe, for this we endure and persevere amid so great perverseness of this world, hope comforting us, before that hope becomes reality.

This is also what is meant when it said, he emptied himself,^[1] because he did not appear to men in that dignity which he had with the Father, but took into account the weakness of those who did not yet have a clean heart whereby they might see the Word in the beginning with the Father.^[2] What then do the words he left the Father mean? He left [the Father] to appear to men as he is with the Father. He likewise left his mother, that is, the old and carnal observance of the synagogue, which was a mother to him from the seed of David according to the flesh. And he clung to his wife, that is, the church, so that they might be two in one flesh.^[3] For the apostle says that he is the head of the church and the church is his body.

If the spirit of him, he says, that raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies, because of the spirit that dwells in you.^[1] Therefore, the universal church, which is now in the pilgrimage of mortal life, awaits at the end of time what was first shown in the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the firstborn from the dead, because the church is his body, of which he is the head.

And if we should carefully consider all the concepts applied to him, he is the beginning only insofar as he is wisdom. He is not even the beginning insofar as he is the Word, since the Word was in the beginning,^[1] so that someone might say boldly that wisdom is older than all the concepts in the names of the firstborn of all creation. God, therefore, is altogether one and simple. Our Savior, however, is many things. . . . And for this reason he becomes the light of men when men, darkened by evil, need the light which shines in the darkness and is not grasped by darkness.^[2] He would not have become the light of men if men had not been in darkness. And it is possible to perceive a similar thing also in the case of him being the firstborn [from] the dead. For if, by way of supposition, the woman had not been deceived and Adam had not fallen into sin, but the man created for incorruption had grasped incorruption, he would have neither descended into the dust of death^[3] nor died since there would have been no sin for which he had to die because of his love for men. And if he had not done these things, he would not have become the firstborn from the dead.

So that also in generation he is first. And this is what Paul is chiefly endeavoring to show. For if in fact he is the firstborn, that he was before all the angels, then there is brought in along with it this also as a consequence, that the work done by angels was really commanded by him. And what is indeed wonderful, Paul makes a point of showing that Christ is first, though he was actually born in human form at a relatively later time. Although elsewhere Paul calls Adam first,^[1] as in truth he is, he here takes the church for the whole race of mankind. For he is first of the church, and first of men after the flesh, like as of the creation. And therefore Paul here uses the word firstborn.

When Paul says firstborn from the dead, it is clear that he is referring to the assumed humanity of Christ.

Firstborn of all creation applied to his status before the emergence of the created order, whereas firstborn from the dead refers to the fact that he was raised first of all the brothers who will share in salvation.

The blessed Paul called the Christ the firstborn of the dead. I suppose the firstborn has the same nature as they of whom he is called firstborn. As man then he is firstborn of the dead, for he first destroyed the pangs of death and gave to all the sweet hope of another life. As he rose, so he suffered. As man then he suffered, but as awful God he remained impassible.

And he is also a beginning. . . . But what benefits do we derive from believing that he is the beginning? We become ourselves what we believe our beginning to be.

This also confirms the truth of this confession of ours that, while it is the actual natural flesh and no other which will rise, yet it will rise purged from its faults and having laid aside its corruption, so that the saying of the apostle is true: It is sown in corruption; it will be raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it will be raised in glory; it is sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual body.^[1] Inasmuch then as it is a spiritual body, and glorious, and incorruptible, it will be furnished and adorned with its own proper members, not with members taken from elsewhere, according to that glorious image of which Christ is set forth as the perpetual type. . . . [indeed] in reference to our hope of the resurrection, Christ is set forth all through as the archetype, since he is the firstborn of those who rise, and since he is the head of every creature.

The Word of God, by condescending to us and being humbled, as it were, in regard to his own worth, when he is present with men, is said to change places when he goes from this world to the Father. The result is that we then see him in his perfection, returning from the emptying with which he emptied himself^[1] alongside us to his own [proper and divine] fullness.^[2] And we, too, using him as a guide, are fulfilled and delivered from all emptiness. . . . If we understand the ascent of the Son to the Father with holy insight and in a way suitable to God, we shall realize that it is the ascent of mind rather than of body.

By the term fullness some speak of the Godhead, like as John said, Of his fullness have we all received.^[1] That is, whatever was the Son, the whole Son dwelt there, not a sort of energy, but a Substance.

He calls the church the fullness of God.

In the epistle to the Ephesians Paul calls the church the fullness, because it is filled with divine gifts. By God’s care it dwells in Christ, is joined to him, is under his rule, follows his laws.

With regard to his Godhead, therefore, the Son of God so possesses his own glory that the glory of Father and Son is one: he is not, therefore, inferior in splendor, for the glory is one, nor lower in Godhead, for the fullness of the Godhead is in Christ.

The fullness is in him and remains in him. This means that he surpasses all things and cannot be surpassed, that he may fashion, refashion, restore the fallen, raise the dead. Thus he says, Just as the Father has life in himself; so he gives it to the Son to have life in himself.^[1]

Therefore, for that reason, it was necessary for my Lord and Savior not only to be born a man among men but also to descend to hell that as a prepared man he could lead away the lot of the scapegoat into the wilderness of hell. And returning from that place, his work completed, he could ascend to the Father and be more fully purified at the heavenly altar so that he could give a pledge of our flesh, which he had taken with him, in perpetual purity. This, therefore, is the real day of atonement when God is propitiated for men; just as the apostle also says, Since God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.^[1] And in another place, he says about Christ, Making peace through the blood of his cross whether with things in heaven or things on earth.

Thus, as peace began to be [established], the angels proclaimed, Glory in the highest and peace on earth.^[1] When lower beings received [peace] from superior beings, they cried, Glory on earth and peace in the heavens.^[2] At that time when the divinity came down [and] was clothed in humanity, the angels cried, Peace on earth. And at the time when that humanity ascended in order to be absorbed into the divinity and sit on the right—Peace in heaven—the infants were crying forth before him, Hosanna in the highest.^[3] Hence, the apostle also learned that one should say, He made peace by the blood of his cross [for] that which is in heaven and on earth.

I believe that, when our Lord the Savior came, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were blessed with God’s mercy. Previously they had seen his day and rejoiced.^[1] It is not believable that they did not profit from it later, when he came and was born of a virgin. And why do I speak of the patriarchs? I shall boldly follow the authority of the Scriptures to higher planes, for the presence of the Lord Jesus and his work benefitted not only what is earthly but also what is heavenly. Hence the apostle too says, Establishing peace through the blood of his cross, both on earth and in heaven.

But what are things in the heavens? . . . The earth was divided from heaven, the angels had become enemies to men, through seeing the Lord insulted. . . . What Christ did on the cross was to translate up into heaven sinful humankind still in bondage to the evil one. Thus he, in effect, brought up to the angels the enemy, the hated one. Not only did he make the things on earth to be at peace, but he brought up to them the one who was their enemy and foe. Here was peace profound. Angels again appeared on the earth thereafter, because humankind from its side had appeared in heaven.

He reconciled all things (he says) in his death (that is, by his blood and his cross) and joined things on earth and in heaven for a common purpose, because he died and rose again. By rising he truly made available to all the common promise of resurrection and immortality.

For the true peace is above. Yet, as long as we were bound to the flesh, we were yoked to many things which troubled us. Seek, then, after peace, a release from the troubles of this world. Possess a calm mind, a tranquil and unconfused state of soul, which is neither agitated by the passions nor drawn aside by false doctrines that challenge by their persuasiveness to an assent, in order that you may obtain the peace of God which surpasses all understanding and guards your heart.^[1] He who seeks after peace, seeks Christ, because he himself is our peace, who has made two men into one new man,^[2] making peace, and making peace through the blood of his cross, whether on earth or in the heavens.

The Savior endured all this, making peace through the blood of the cross, for all things whether in the heavens or on the earth. For we were enemies of God through sin, and God had decreed the death of the sinner. One of two things, therefore, was necessary, either that God, in his truth, should destroy all men, or that in his loving-kindness, he should remit the sentence. But see the wisdom of God; he preserved the truth of his sentence and the exercise of his loving-kindness. Christ took our sins in his body upon the tree; that we, having died to sin, by his death might live to justice.^[1] He who died for us was of no small worth; he was no material sheep; he was no mere man. He was more than an angel, he was God made man. The iniquity of sinners was not as great as the justice of him who died for them. The sins we committed were not as great as the justice he wrought, who laid down his life for us. He laid it down when he willed, and he took it up again when he willed.

Beings on earth and beings in heaven were separated by antitheses in their way of life. Thus, we pray that God’s will may be done on earth as in heaven.

But nevertheless, he says, you that do not act against your wills, nor from compulsion, but with your wills and wishes sprang away from him, you he has reconciled, though you were unworthy of it. And seeing that he had made mention of the things in the heavens, he shows that all the enmity had its origin from our side, not from the inhabitants of heaven. For they indeed were long ago desirous, and God also, but you were not willing. And throughout he is showing that the angels had no power during the course of human history, to the extent that human beings chose to continue as enemies. The angels could neither persuade them, nor, even if they had persuaded, could they deliver humankind from the devil.

As he recalls God’s gift to the Gentiles, Paul shows by how much more they are debtors with respect to God’s grace. For they were enemies of his counsel, by which he had decided to visit the human race through his servant Moses. They did not receive his teaching and power but worshiped their own idols, even the evil works. They adored the works which they themselves had fabricated.

The apostle, in his epistle to the Colossians, wishing to show that the body of Christ was made of flesh and was not spiritual and made of some gossamer, ethereal substance, said significantly, And you, when you were sometime alienated from Christ and enemies of his spirit in evil works, he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. And again in the same epistle: In whom you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands in the putting off of the body of the flesh.^[1] If by body is meant flesh only, and the word is not ambiguous nor capable of diverse significations, it was quite superfluous to use both expressions—bodily and of flesh—as though body did not imply flesh.

Note how he says that it was his own body and his own flesh which was given up for us. We must not say, then, that the flesh and blood was that of another son apart from him, understood as separate and honored as a mere conjunction, having an alien glory, someone who did not have preeminence substantially, but only as if the name of sonship and that of Godhead which is above every name were thrown over him like a mask or a cloak.

In a similar fashion to his treatment of the subject in the letter to the Ephesians, Paul speaks here of the primacy in Christ, such that there is a joining of the church to that which has already been accomplished in him. . . . The effect is that there is in Christ a bearing away of our mortality in the gift of immortality . . . so that every uprighting act which is worked by him is contained in the promises, which foresaw the future renewal in a future time.

[With regard to 1:22-23] you should observe that Paul does not know or teach anything that he believes to be impossible for human beings to do.

He, however, is not unreasonably said to walk blamelessly, not who has already reached the end of his journey but who is passing on towards the end in a blameless manner, free from damnable sins, and at the same time not neglecting to cleanse by almsgiving such sins as are venial.^[1] For the way in which we walk, that is, the road by which we reach perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer. That, however, is a clean prayer in which we say in truth, Forgive us, as we ourselves forgive.^[2] So that, as there is nothing censured when blame is not imputed, we may hold on our course to perfection without censure, in a word, blamelessly.

The Son of God is older than all his creation, so that he became the Father’s adviser in his creation. Therefore also he is ancient.

Jesus Christ . . . was with the Father before the beginning of time, and in the end was revealed.

Jesus Christ is the only proper Son who has been begotten by God, his Word and first-begotten, and power; and, becoming man according to his will, he taught us these things for the conversion and restoration of the human race.

Thus does he make him equal to him: for by proceeding from himself he became his first-begotten Son, begotten before all things [Col 1:15]; and his only-begotten also, because he alone is begotten of God, in a way peculiar to himself, from the womb of his own heart—even as the Father himself testifies: “My heart,” says he, “has issued my most excellent Word”.

If anyone does not say that the Son was begotten of the Father, that is, of the divine substance of him himself, he is a heretic.

Jesus Christ, whom we also confess to have always been with the Father always—before the world’s beginning, spiritually and ineffably [he was] begotten of the Father before all beginning.